Saturday, June 06, 2015

Headlines below the fold, plus rants

while you were busy reading about BrucyBaby and the other Kardashians, some very important stories are going on that you might have missed.
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StrategyPage reports about corruption in the Chinese banking system, and it's implications for bringing on a major economic depression there. And they also note that when things get bad in China, the Chinese revolt:

This is one reason why the government wants to control anti-corruption efforts, lest the public find out too many details of how badly behaved their leaders still are. Most Chinese already know their government is full of corrupt and inefficient officials but too many details of this mess could trigger another major uprising. It’s happened before, many times, in Chinese history. In the mid-19th century the Taiping uprising killed over 20 million.

They also note China's sea grab in the West Philippine Sea:

he Philippines, Japan and Vietnam are encouraging the United States to follow through with plans to have American aircraft and warships regularly challenge parts of the South China Sea that China claims to control. None of China’s neighbors believe legal action will make China halt its continuing moves down there. China is now attempting to regulate how other countries can use it (for fishing, oil exploration, or even transit via sea or air). Only American military power can provide an obstacle

but Obama appears weak, so everyone here is worried. The cynics here point out that many of the elite families have Chinese links, and China hopes the next president here will look the other way for a small gift, as has happened before.

In Egypt, the new President is the same as the old president, i.e. the military took over after the "democratically" elected president allowed the extremist Muslim brotherhood too much power.

One man one vote sounds fine, until you remember that propaganda can sway the average voter, and democracy can lead to the idea that if you win 51 percent you can become a dictator and get rid of your enemies... See the death of Socrates or the election of Hitler for examples.

which, by the way, is why America's constitution was based on the Roman republic, where minorities had a say in what was done...

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I love Father Z but the fact is that often the Latin mass was often not done well back then, and that the priest mumbled and everyone was bored and fell asleep...

However, if you pine for pre Vatican II days, just check out his readers asking petty questions. LINKLINK2
Yes, in the good old days before Vatican II, such trivia was taken seriously by some. They even had a name for it: Scruples.

the real problem with modern Catholicism is that the mememe of the modern mass makes God merely a cheerleader who confirms our self esteem...so no rules at all, because it might hurt your feelings.

The idea that we serve God humbly in our daily lives, and that the Mass/receiving communion is how he meets and helps us in this, is no longer taught...

Instead, the important thing for the church's PC "middle management" is trying to turn the church into a social worker that cheers on the Democrats.

which is why the PC nuns of the Catholic health system will have Obama give them a speech, thanking them for their support of Obamacare, never mind that abortion promoting part of the bill. Apparently, to paraphrase Henry of Navarre: free health care is worth a dead baby or two.

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and the really really important news of the day:

I had no problem with Russia taking over the Crimea, which historically is Russian and should never have been joined with the Ukraine (which was done in the 1950's in the USSR).

However, the fact that Russia did it by force, rather than by plebecite, is a big problem. Will Putin now take over the Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland, which were also once part of Russia?

and if you let Russia take over the Crimea (Russian up to the 1950's) will you let China take over it's land claims, all of which date back over 200 years? How about England's claim to Ireland, or Mexico's claim to Utah, or Germany's claim to western Poland? It could get messy. Why not let the Norwegians take over Canada, since they settled there in 1000...